Owens helps Cowboys survive surge by Bengals

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IRVING, Texas (Ticker) -- The Dallas Cowboys aren't interested
in appearances, which is a good thing considering their sloppy
effort in getting past the lowly Cincinnati Bengals.

Terrell Owens caught a 57-yard touchdown pass and helped the
Cowboys survive a late surge by the Bengals in a 31-22 victory
on Sunday.

Tony Romo threw the scoring strike with 11:56 remaining in the
game to give the Cowboys a 24-16 advantage. With the catch,
Owens tied Marshall Faulk for fourth on the all-time list for
total touchdowns with 136.

"I'm sorry that I'm not sorry that we won," Romo said. "I think
that's something that we have to fight around here is that if
you don't win pretty it's not a positive. At the end of the
year, it's going to be a W.

"You could look beautiful and pretty, but there's no guarantee
it's going to stay that way. You don't get crowned champions
for being the best-looking team right now."

Bengals running back Chris Perry fumbled at the Cowboys 40-yard
line and Anthony Spencer recovered the ball with 12:36 left to
set up Owens' score.

T.J. Houshmandzadeh recorded seven catches for 85 yards and two
touchdowns - including a 10-yarder with 7:45 left to cut
Cincinnati's deficit to 24-22.

Carson Palmer unleashed a fade pass toward the left corner of
the end zone for a two-point conversion to forge a tie, but
intended receiver Ben Utecht failed to convert.

"If you don't give up a big play, which they didn't, you're
going to win the majority of the games," Houshmandzadeh said.
"They didn't give up a big play and they beat us. Last week
against Washington, they gave up big plays and they lost. If
you eliminate big plays, you'll win games."

Romo, who completed 14-of-23 attempts for 176 yards, hit Patrick
Crayton for a 15-yard TD with 1:52 left to secure the victory.

"We did a good job of not succumbing to the momentum," Romo
said. "We're excited that we're finding different ways to win."

Jason Witten caught a 4-yard touchdown pass 2:48 into the second
to give Dallas a 17-0 advantage, but Cincinnati then began its
comeback.

"We were in a lull there in the second half," Witten said. "You
want to come out and make a statement, but they didn't quit,
either.

"I wouldn't say we're struggling. We still put up 17 points in
the first half and ran for 180 yards. I wouldn't call that
struggling."

Shayne Graham booted field goals of 41 and 31 yards and Palmer
threw an 18-yard TD pass to Houshmandzadeh with 7:59 left in the
third to cut the deficit to 17-13.

"I just finished telling those guys in that room that there is
no consolation prize for losing," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis
said. "We kind of dug ourselves a hole and put the defense in a
bad situation at the end of the football game. Some of the
explosive plays today, we have to get those shut down."

Graham struck again for a 40-yard field goal just 58 seconds
into the fourth to pull within 17-16.

Rookie Felix Jones broke free for a 33-yard rushing score with
six minutes remaining in the first to extend the Cowboys' bulge
to 10-0.

"I thought that was a real good win for us," Cowboys coach Wade
Phillips said. "We made mistakes, but we were able to overcome
them and that's part of learning to win.

"I thought our guys played as hard as they could play. The
bottom line is whether you win or not. We got lots of things to
work and we're going to work like crazy to correct our mistakes.
You still got to learn to win. Some teams would've lost this
game because things weren't going well."